Design, Architecture, Gardens, Southern California Living

Midcentury fans 'Mad' for Don Draper's new pad

April 9, 2012 | 2:09
pm

Woe to the design team behind “Mad Men,” whose ravenous fans mercilessly scour the period decor in every episode. Is that a 1967 chair in a 1966 scene? Is that refrigerator color really right for the times? Design-savvy viewers have been all too happy to point out potential goofs as well as must-haves. The first obsession was Don Draper's new Manhattan home, an Upper East Side spread complete with serious bachelor pad trappings.

Fan sites and decorating blogs are filled with Season 5 analysis, to varying degrees of sophistication. Casa Sugar loaded 17 photos onto its site with scintillating, insightful commentary such as, “A glass-topped, metal-base coffee table holds a variety of party snacks,” and, “Don's sectional sofa is covered with a variety of pleated, multihued circular pillows.”

But on her Mirror Mirror blog, Seattle design junkie Paola Thomas astutely spotted classic Midcentury enamel bowls by Norwegian manufacturer Cathrineholm. On Apartment Therapy, one reader asking about Don's blue swag light elicited more than 20 comments from readers speculating where they too could buy the look. (Answer: EBay, $595 for a pair of similar lamps in white.)

If you missed the original post, check out David A. Keeps' L.A. at Home interview with set decorator Claudette Didul, who can give more enlightening details about how she shopped like a "Mad" man -- and pieced together Don's look with finds from EBay, Etsy and Craigslist, as well as stores in Long Beach, Pasadena and North Hollywood.